


For the People You Love

by zoruas



Category: Batgirl (Comics), Batman (Comics), Batman - All Media Types, DCU
Genre: Batfamily (DCU), Bonding, Cassandra Cain is Batgirl, Comfort, Friendship, Stephanie Brown is Spoiler, Tim Drake is Red Robin
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-28
Updated: 2020-05-28
Packaged: 2021-03-02 22:40:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,175
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24414481
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/zoruas/pseuds/zoruas
Summary: After a patrol goes wrong, Stephanie seeks comfort with Cassandra and Tim.
Relationships: Stephanie Brown & Cassandra Cain & Tim Drake
Comments: 2
Kudos: 36





	For the People You Love

Stephanie's eyes stung in the light of the Batcave. She tapped at the wrist computer built into her Spoiler suit, and a holographic image flashed in front of her - it was nearly 4 AM, and coming off of a long patrol was still as exhausting as ever.

It was a Sunday night, so it had been her turn to survey the south side of Gotham, mainly breaking up various small robberies and disputes before she'd received an order from Barbara to head to the Diamond District. What ensued was a three hour stake-out with Jason that devolved into a firefight with a lower level gang. It went fine, but before she'd known it, Stephanie had been thrown away from the docks and into a shallow end of the Finger River. The mission as a whole had taken up a chunk of the night that she should have spent sleeping. As she set down her motorcycle and made her way through a tunnel off the edge of the cave, Stephanie sighed, tugging at her suit. She was exhausted and drenched, a combination that led her to believe that tonight’s rest would be fitful.

Finally, the sleek metal of the tunnel around her gave way to jagged stone. Stephanie made her way up the steps that led to the center of the cave, boots squelching. Her eyes widened when she recognized the figures by the Batcomputer - she had expected to see Bruce, at the very least, but Tim was sitting in front of the screen and Cassandra stood next to him, still in her Batgirl suit with her cowl off. The two were engaged in quiet conversation - when Stephanie came closer, Cass gave her a smile and Tim turned the chair around, a hand in his hair.

"You look like shit," Tim said by way of greeting, and Stephanie resisted the urge to smash his face into the too-big keyboard - the one with the freakishly large multitude of keys that made her head swim. It had taken her at least a week to get a good handle on it when she was Robin, and even now, some of the command keys seemed to blur together.

"Yeah, well," she crossed her arms, trying to fend off the shivering she knew would come once the adrenaline faded. "Jay pulled me into a late mission. I got flung into the fucking Finger River, _Timothy_. It's 4 AM! I should be in bed right now! I have a final coming up!"

"Isn't the suit insulated?" Cassandra was next to Stephanie now, her lithe fingers prodding and poking at her, clearly intent on checking for wounds.

"Clearly not insulated enough." Stephanie's tone was sharp, but most of the bite to it had ebbed away. Tim made a sympathetic noise and stood up - Cassandra led her over to the chair, where Stephanie drew her knees in and hugged them, propping up her cheek.

"Where's B?" she asked as Cassandra slipped off her hood and mask and carded through her strands of wet hair.

"Watchtower. JLA business," Tim responded from across the cave. He was at the medbay, sorting through neatly folded blankets under the blue light. "Dick headed back to Bludhaven and took Damian with him for a visit. Babs was here like two hours ago, you just missed her - probably headed back home."

"Jason headed back to his apartment," Stephanie mumbled. "He was hurt, too. Babs told me she'd track him, make sure he got home okay."

Cassandra nodded and withdrew slightly as Stephanie stood up and started peeling off her Spoiler suit. The material was annoyingly stretchy when wet, and she struggled to tug it off for a few moments. When she finally did, gravel scattered all over the floor from inside the suit and she sat back down in the chair, only in her soaked tank top and shorts now.

"Did he get you out of the river?" Cassandra asked, motioning for Stephanie to scoot over. Cass settled in next to her, the two pressed tightly together as they shared the chair.

"Yeah," Stephanie said miserably, closing her eyes. She felt less awful now - the cold was seeping out of her bones and the numbness in her extremities was withdrawing. It helped, being here with the two of them. She was glad it was them. A quiet night was exactly what she needed, and she didn't think she could handle the embarrassment of showing up to the cave like this in front of anyone besides Tim and Cass. Things had seemed to pile up lately, one after the other - she'd had a fight with Bruce earlier in the week, and her mother's progress in rehab had been shaky since the beginning of the month. Here, she allowed herself to melt into the glow of Cassandra's physical affection and Tim's continuous verbal commentary.

After a minute or two, Tim finally withdrew from the bay, looking satisfied with himself as he handed her a thermal blanket and she wrapped herself in it. He knelt next to the chair and pressed the back of his hand to her forehead, eyes narrowed in concentration.

"Are you cold?"

"No," Stephanie murmured. "Just tired. Still a little numb, but the blanket should help."

Cassandra hummed in agreement. "Stay in the manor tonight." It sounded like a question, but Stephanie knew it was more of a statement than anything - a silent agreement. "I can make us soup."

"Soup?" Tim repeated, giving a quiet laugh. He shrank away, still laughing as Cassandra's lips curled into a smile and she batted at his face with her gloved hand. "Cass, when was the last time you made soup?"

"Alfred taught me," Cassandra insisted. "It's good, you two will like it. It's ba bao zhou."

"Food," Stephanie said suddenly, solemnly, almost a little dramatically, "is something you make for the people you love."

With any other people, the statement would have seemed out of place in the middle of a conversation, but Tim and Cassandra were familiar with this style of commentary and nodded in agreement. Stephanie felt a little delirious - she couldn't remember the last time she'd slept for over four hours and darkness was invading the edges of her vision, but she tugged at the front of Tim's Red Robin suit and patted her lap. He leaned his head on it and closed his eyes as she ran a hand through his hair. Cassandra grinned mischievously and began braiding strands of Tim's hair together, ignoring the quiet grunt of complaint he gave.

"I have a case to finish," Tim groaned, and Cassandra shushed him. The exchange was almost comical to Stephanie, and she bit back a laugh.

"Finish your case tomorrow." Cassandra snaked a limb over her brother and tapped at his pallid face, right beneath his eyes. "Look at these bags."

Their words continued, filling the silence of the cave with a peaceful lull. Stephanie’s chest warmed as she fought to stay awake, but her eyelids were drooping and the battle was lost before it had even begun.

**Author's Note:**

> a warmup piece that i thought would be nice to share. thank you for reading!! you can find me @onwater on tumblr :-)


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